The Tyranny of the Marginal User

I agree this happens a lot, but isn't this an area of financial life that is regulated, governed, and monitored by states today? I am not familiar with the policies or regulations in play here but this seems very addressable by the institutions and regulatory bodies that exist today in most (all?) countries. A solved problem, in other words.

am i the only one who finds the vilifying of a "dumb user", of internet, of anything, if not just dumb in itself, then just a bit unethical. sorry guys, you are all just here on this planet along with dumb people. that's so sad, huh. sucks to be you.

making accessible things is actually good. not sure how that "dumbification of software for the marginal user" really aligns with what happens with apps. sometimes things don't get "dumber", or "simpler", or "easier to get even for the most basic of users". sometimes things just get worse. or get more complicated, internally (to exploit that user) or externally (dark patterns). simplification is really not the reason nor the 'evil thing-ruining machine' running behind the 'worsening of everything'. it might be the myriad of business processes, including a/b testing and orienting on whatever metrics analytics spit out, but like, despite almost pointing to that, this still diverts to 'things get simplified for the sake of the user' (boo hoo cutting features removing buttons). sure. but that's not the problem. the problem is the process that leads to, not just 'simplification' but whatever changes that happen.

>nearly all popular consumer software

is it really?

While this is an exceptionally cynical article it contains a truth that transcends app development.

Sometime during Covid I was in a massive supermarket that was nearly empty. I was in the deodorant aisle trying to choose from the approximately 100 brand and scent options. I wanted a deodorant without aluminum because I had read online that aluminum in deodorant causes yellow stains. This used to be hard, only one or two brands used to specialize in that. But on that day, my usual brand had a "new forumula!" that included aluminum. While looking at the packaging I realized the brand had been bought by one of the big boys, like a Unilever, Johnson&Johnson, whatever.

I scanned the new ingredient list of the product and then scanned the wall of 100+ brands and scents in front of me. I started picking a few at random and taking a look at their ingredients lists. Every single one was the same. I mean, they have brand names that are distinct, color schemes that are distinct, scents that are distinct. But it was a total illusion of choice. Those 100 options were really just 1 option. The only differentiator between them was packaging and scent.

I had a moment. The bright lights of the environment. The decor of the supermarket. The just audible music. When I squinted my eyes even the packaging of all of the brands blended into a single object. The entire environment was perfectly tuned to keep me unaware at the illusion of choice.

A few weeks later, basically the next time I went to buy deodorant, I noticed that several of the standard brands now offered a new choice, boldly printed on the deodorant caps: "Aluminum Free!". Apparently I am as easily understood and marketed to as anyone.

What I mean to say, the supermarket is just as tuned to make you Marl. 99.9% of the time I don't read the ingredient list of the products I buy. Whoever designs these environments knows this. They don't want to compete on actual differentiators. They want to lull your brain into a sleep and then present you with the one precise differentiator you care about. In my case, it was aluminum. When they realized that small no-name brands were succeeding by solving a problem the big brands created, they just bought them out and then re-packaged their existing products to highlight the differentiator.

In that moment I saw it all. How we are turning ourselves into robots. How I was not immune. In my humble opinion, tech brands are behind the curve on this one. Consumer product brands have been mining this space for decades, probably centuries.

It means nerds (male and female) are now an underserved dating market, compared to when dating sites were in their infancy.

I remember WAP, and had an early-phase smartphone with limited Web support (Palm Treo/Centro) which ... remains one of the better phones that I've had (hard keyboard among other features). You wouldn't want to read much on that, but as a quick on-the-go reference, particularly when travelling, it was handy.

One of my daily drivers is a large (13.3") e-ink tablet. Reading on that is actually a pleasure, though it's led me to another conclusion: scrolling sucks.

I much prefer reading paginated media, and if at all possible, fixed-layout media (e.g., PDFs rather than ePub) both because the same material stays in the same place on the same page regardless of other settings (I have a strongly spatial memory), and because the layout is usually just simply much better than what fluid-layouts achieve.

What really drives me nuts though is having to scroll on webpages. It's imprecise, half the time I'm clicking on something I'd not intended to, and it's much harder and less pleasing to read.

But size and print clarity alone make this a huge improvement over smartphone displays.

Sorry to hear about the eyesight issues.